Tonsillectomy Recovery Time
After a lifetime of tonsillitis, it was time. I made the appointment. Was I scared? Yes. Was I prepared for tonsillectomy recovery? NO. Can you be? YES!
Planning for and recovering from a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy procedure, (often referred to as T & A Surgery), can be daunting experiences. The days leading up to your surgery can be frightening. If you haven’t read up yet, you can find information on tonsillectomy methods, risks, costs, adult tonsillectomy, sleep apnea, and numerous tips for tonsillectomy recovery on the other pages of this site. I’ve even added pictures of a post tonsillectomy throat by each day. Study, talk with your doctor and consult with your friends about the decision to undergo tonsillectomy and adenoid surgery. Explore the pages created here to aid in your journey.
If you should decide to have tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, let us help you through the entire process. Whether due to problems with sleep apnea, chronic tonsillitis and strep throat, tonsil stones, trouble swallowing, or a combination thereof, you can benefit from the experience of others. My own experience taught me that, as patients, we need to advocate for ourselves. Ear, nose, and throat doctors are, by and large, extremely talented individuals. However, very few of them have experienced an adult tonsillectomy, and the subsequent recovery. I have. Many others have too. We share our experiences here at the adult tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy recovery resource center. As you’ll read in the tonsillectomy recovery forum, everyone’s experience is unique. There are many factors that influence the level of pain you experience, as well as the length of time required during recovery. The method, and skill of your surgeon can have an affect, but there are also many things within your control that will reduce pain and recovery time. I’ve tried to include as many helpful tips as possible within the pages of this online resource. Tonsillectomy recovery can be pretty rough, especially if you are unlucky enough to be an adult! It takes longer for an adult to recover from most things. Tonsillectomy is no exception. There are many things you can do to make it go more smoothly. I’ve published numerous tips here on various pages. I encourage you to read up BEFORE you are in the throws of tonsillectomy recovery.
Talk with your doctor, friends, family, and work as you prepare. You are not alone in this. Like you and like me, many others are facing or have faced a tonsillectomy recovery. I created this forum for you. The community of adults or parents of patients will amaze you and warm your heart. I read these comments every day and every day I am humbled by everyone’s story and their compassion for others in the midst of recovery, or the anxiety that often precedes a tonsillectomy. Please join in. Hundreds of other people, perhaps in your same situation, have shared their wisdom, concerns, tips, and questions about tonsillectomy, as well as their tonsillectomy recovery.
-Greg My short bio
Hi Guys!
I am posting exactly a week after surgery. I am a 40 year old male. My tonsils grew to a point where they were “kissing”, resulting in severe impaired breathing and severe sleep apnea. I was choking every time I ate. Needless to say they needed to go. On a side note, I also had a deviated septum corrected at the same time. My Dr. pre-prescribed percocet for the upcoming trauma and told me because of the size (of my tonsils), to expect a very uncomfortable recovery. I took 2 weeks off of work.
Day 1 (Day of Surgery)
Arrived at the outpatient surgery center, and pretty much just remember the anesthesiologist hooking me up and waking up in recovery with a gauze sling around my nose. My mom took my home and cared for me during the week. Post surgery I felt the discomforts of having my nose and throat worked on but was not in pain. I went home and tried to sleep and just get through the first day. I tried to sip on water and gatorade as much as I can. Sipping and swallowing was very painful. I opted not to take the pain meds for no other reason than I didn’t think I needed them. Spent most of the first day managing my bloody nose sling and sipping gatorade….I didn’t eat, but did watch alot of Food Network shows…..
Day 2
I had an appointment with the Dr. to take the nose packing out. It was quite a relief to take the packing out as it was uncomfortable during the previous day. If you have the same procedure done, expect bleeding throughout the night until the packing is taken out. Stints remained in my nose to be removed on Day 6.
I pretty much sat at home and watched more food shows…at this point I still am sipping water and gatorade to keep hydrated. Again the sipping and swallowing was very difficult but tried to do my best. My mom brought home a Jamba Juice, I spoon fed it to myself…At times my throat felt dry and my ears are starting to hurt.
No food/pain meds today….
Days 3/4
These days where pretty much doing the same thing watching TV (yes food shows) sipping on water and gatorade and txting my friends/family/cowokers my status and asking them what they ate that day. Pain has been tolerable when just watching tv…Sipping and swallowing liquids is still very hard and uncomfortable. Got sick of the Jamba Juice that my mom had been bringing home to me. Swallowing still illicits pain in my throat and ears. The pain/discomfort has NOT decreased since the day of surgery. Waking up from sleep is the worst, as my mouth and throat are dry….I drank a Ensure on day 4.
No food/pain meds on these days….
Day 5/6
Waking up on these days have been very painful. My throat would be very dry and swallowing illicited pain in my throat and my ears. These days were the first days I considered to take my pain meds. After about 15 min in (dry swallowing) bed wincing from the pain, the discomfort subsided. Drinking fluids still illicits the pain in my throat and ears. The pain has increased since the day of surgery.
Don’t ask me why but I am still watching alot of food shows…I am pretty hungry at this point, but the thought of the pain of swallowing suppresses my appetite.
I ended up stepping out of the house with friends on these days to get fresh air and my blood circulating. I would suggest you do the same. I tried some warm chicken soup broth…yum!!!
Day 7
Went back to the Dr. to get the nose stints outs. With the stints out I can breath better through my nose, hopefully this will help with my throat drying as I sleep. Pain was still pretty bad after waking up but again subsided about 10 minutes later. I went to get Pho (noodles) with my mom and was able to put it down. It was painful/exhausting, but hunger now outweighed the pain. I still have pain in my ears when I swallow. Drinking fluids is still uncomfortable.
I want to say today is the first day the pain/discomfort is less then the day of surgery.
That’s pretty much my first week. I definitely breath alot better. My sleeping has improved and I do not foresee choking as I eat anymore.
Thanks for everyone on this board for sharing their experiences…It definitely helped my get through the hard times.
Peter
Well, today is day 2 post-op, approximately 26 hours after the surgery. Yesterday my uvula was swollen, and the nurse told me today should be the worst day for pain, but it’s been an easy ride. I am VERY tired, but just hanging out at home, sipping codeine and children’s aleve between codeine doses. Looking forward to a higher quality of life as a result.
36 Male. yeah, exactly what Beth said. saying the surgery should be illegal for adults is pretty silly. my recovery pretty much sucked when i had mine out in February (on valentines day) but i pulled thru. Thanks to this site i was overly prepared and had some cool people from this site who had there’s out the same week and a few others the same day (the valentine’s day massacre crew) and we all helped each other along the way. Like Greg say’s and most others who had theirs out as an adult, the most important thing to so is keep drinking liquids and exercising the throat muscles and forcing yourself to eat, even if it’s just ensure drinks. I lived it myself and i was there in the worst pain pounding on the shower wall while swallowing the ensure drink that felt like i was swallowing some sort of liquid with shards of glass in it. You will pull thru and everyone’s experience is a bit different and also varies on the type of removal method your surgeon performed as well. I also followed my surgeons instructions and compiled information from this site and other peoples experiences. I had a ton of pain but i knew that’s how it would go but i never had one drop of blood or infections. I did have a tad bit of thrush but beat that out with yogurt and acidophilus. But for the most part as long as you prepare yourself for the worst and hope for the best you will be just fine. You can NEVER be over prepared for this surgery. The better prepared you are, the more comfortable you will be! And ALWAYS never be afraid to contact your doctor back if your pain med’s do not work for you. there are all kind’s of different combos they can give you. remember you hired them to do a job for you.
Hey all, I’m just now beginning post-op day 4. My ENT said that day 3 is usually the worst (for his patients at least) but aside from more frequent referred pain, the pain hasn’t been any different. I guess I’m just lucky because I have a brother-in-law that is a doctor and a sister (living at home with me) that is a med-surg nurse so I don’t have to worry about my pain ever getting out of control. When I first got home from the hospital (07/19), I was nauseous from the anesthesia and lortab and in so much pain that night that she tweaked the dosages so that I was taking 1/4th of a 15ml dose of lortab mixed with gatorade (to make it go down easily) every 4 hours and then 1/2 a 15ml dose of extra strength liquid tylenol. I was taking my pain meds like that every 2 hours for the first few days and then yesterday my sister switched the dosages around that I was taking 1/2 dose of 15ml lortab and 1/4dose of 15ml tylenol. Its going to take some math on your part, but as long your acetaminophen intake stays at/below 4000ml you can take your pain meds more frequently. And I’ve been able to get more sleep each night so I’m able to skip at least dose overnight. As far as eating goes, I’ve been sticking to mashed potatoes (with extra milk added so its super liquidy), pudding, jello, broth, popsicles, ice creams/shakes, and lemon ices. I tried mac/cheese and buttered noodles but although they were delicious, my jaw would tire out fairly quickly and I couldn’t eat that much. I developed the white film on my tongue on day 2 so I’ve been brushing my teeth/tongue 3/4 times a day to prevent it from forming into thrush. I also have been reading other people’s posts a couple weeks now and I noticed that some people didn’t recommend dry swallowing (with just saliva) but it hasn’t been that bad of an experience for me. I did have a pretty nasty case of tonsillitis for a month before surgery so I guess I’m just used to painful swallowing but it has to get down because that’s the only way to speed up the healing process.
Wish you all good luck!
I’m on day 3. The entire process hasn’t been as bad as I had anticipated. The worst thing for me has been that the pain meds have caused lots of itching. My meds work well but just make me itch like crazy. I’ve been able to eat mashed potatoes, pudding,breakfast drinks, broth, and popsicles. I am not aware of losing any scabs yet ( i’m a bit in denial). I did have to throw up a couple of times as well. It was not bad at all. Overall a tolerable experience. I am 42 and look forward to a quick recovery. Thanks for all of the tips and support.